Hand-Assembled Photo Albums

Have I mentioned I love photo books? I really do. =)

I have a special spot for hand assembling photo albums. Kolo makes beautiful paper, cloth, and leather albums and they are my absolute favorites.

With the photos I took at one of my dearest friends' wedding, I created two books, one for the bride and groom and one for the bride's parents.

(The final products were photographed on my versatile backdrop.)

The wedding ceremony had taken place in front of a red wall, which made for a striking background in the photos.

I loved the contrast of the bright red on the black pages and how the cream pages matched the bride's wedding dress.

I found the perfect black brocade fabric with red embroidery that matched both album covers and sewed drawstring bags to carry and store the books.

Part II: Easy Photo Books That Make You Look Incredibly Talented - Wedding Speech & Colorized Photos

Did I mention I *love* photo books?

Another favorite photo book project was a wedding memento for one of my closest friends. I had given a speech at her wedding and I combined the words from my speech with photos I had taken.

For the colorized effect in some of the photos, I used Photoshop to create a copy of the photo and placed it on top of the original. I converted the top photo to black & white and then used the eraser (50% opacity) to erase the top photo wherever I wanted color to show through. With this technique, I was able to "add" color to specific parts of the photos I wanted to highlight.

Front cover:


Inside cover:


Sample pages of colorized photos with words from my speech:

Part I: Easy Photo Books That Make You Look Incredibly Talented - Art Gallery Book

Ever since customizable, bound photo books became available to the average consumer, I have been a huge fan. They're fairly simple to create, look professional, and are relatively inexpensive ($25-$40 and there are always discounts around the winter holidays). I've created books both in Shutterfly and Kodak Gallery with nice results.

In addition to doing scrapbook-style "Year in Review" photo books, I've found other great applications and wanted to share my favorite projects.

The first project was an art gallery book for my co-worker of her children's artwork. While she was out of town, I snuck into her office, took the artwork off the wall, and photographed each piece individually. (Thankfully, I took a "before" picture of her wall and was able to put the artwork back exactly in its place so she never suspected a thing.)

The inside cover (the photo appeared through the cut-out in the cover):


The perfect quote that I added inside:


A few sample pages of artwork:






Another idea - publish your children's stories and illustrations!

Buying & Arranging Wall Frames

I picked up this great guide from Pottery Barn with directions on how to lay out wall frames. I've always wondered what the best way to hang frames along a stairway to they look right. The key is to set large anchor frames which establish an invisible line parallel to the stairs, then balance smaller frames around the anchor frames.
 

For a collection of frames on a regular wall, set the large anchor frames in a row. Then add four smaller frames (of the same size) in the corners above and below to establish an invisible box. When adding additional frames, align them to the edges of the invisible box.

Aaron Brothers is a great place to purchase quality frames. Also, they have a wide selection of various sizes in the same style, and if one store is out of a specific frame, changes are you can find it at another. Aaron Brothers can be on the pricey side, but if you wait until one of their Buy 1, Get 1 for 1 Cent Sales (I believe they're semi-annual), you'll pay about the same price you'd pay for Walmart frames, but you'll have much nicer quality frames.

Before putting up my frames, I measured the final frame sizes, created mock-ups out of scrap paper, and taped the placeholders on the wall to make sure it looked the way I wanted.